The invention relates to an apparatus for the testing of cigarettes in conjunction with a packaging machine, rows of cigarettes located above one another being guided through a testing unit and being tested in the region of vertical test shafts of the latter by (optoelectrical) testing members in a test zone situated above a cigarette store formed by the tested cigarettes.
Before packaging, cigarettes are checked for correct formation, especially for a proper filling of tobacco and, if appropriate, the presence of a filter. It is expedient for the test of the cigarettes to be carried out before the formation of cigarette groups as the content of a cigarette pack. The test is appropriately carried out in the region of a cigarette magazine or immediately in front of this.
In the apparatus according to the older German patent application No. P 37 29 213.7 corresponding to copending U.S. patent application No. 07/236,489, a testing unit having a plurality of vertical test shafts located next to one another is arranged in an enlarged cigarette magazine. A vertically downward-running row of cigarettes arranged above one another is formed in each of these test shafts. The testing of the cigarettes is carried out in the region of their ends during a temporary standstill phase. The defective cigarettes are separated out of the testing unit in their longitudinal direction, whilst the intact cigarettes pass downwards into the region of a cigarette store as result of their own weight.
A problem with this is that the cigarettes drop over a relatively great height in free fall before they strike the cigarettes in the cigarette store. This can result in damage to the cigarettes and also in slanted positions.